Shauns stroke support

Stroke is the thief that stole my husbands sight. 

October 5th 2020. My husband Shaun was only 38 at the time. He had never had any health issues prior to his strokes, and he was an amazing husband and dad to our two young children. In the week leading up to Shauns first stroke, he had a virus that we presumed he had caught from the kids, as they were always bringing home coughs and colds from daycare. He shrugged it off and kept about our normal routine, until the weekend when he started complaining of a severe headache and blurry spots in one eye. The pain wasn’t easing with normal paracetamol so we thought a trip to the ER would be a good idea. On admission, they did a CT scan which did not show anything suspicious, and so he was treated as though he had a migraine headache and was discharged. Eating dinner that night he started suffering bad pains in his neck and jaw, but we decided we would see how he was in the morning and go from there.

Shaun woke up blind in his right eye the following morning. We presented back at the ER and were then quickly sent to another hospital as they thought Shaun was suffering a optical condition. At this point they had no idea how bad things were. He was admitted to a new hospital and tests started to be performed. The following day, after a MRI, we learnt that Shaun had suffered a embolic shower, a pulmonary embolism and that his 2 major arteries in his neck supplying blood to his brain were 100% and 75% blocked with clots. Two days later, a code stroke was called as Shaun could not lift his left arm. Two weeks after this, Shaun lost sight in his other eye and suffered full right sided paralysis and aphasia. He had suffered several more strokes that day. We were told to prepare for the worst. He was in a very critical condition. The prognosis for his vision was poor. 

Shaun spent 6 weeks in the hyper acute stroke ward before they decided he could potentially benefit from rehabilitation. It was a gruelling process, but so worth while and Shaun began to walk and talk and regain function again. However, not long after Christmas, while we were in rehab, he suffered another stroke, this time affecting his speech and he suffered with facial droop and right sided neglect. This was devastating and we could not understand why we were going through this again. We went back to the acute stroke ward for another 2 weeks, before finishing out rehab and starting therapy at home. A total of 5 months in hospital, with a presumed autoimmune condition that triggered a clotting storm in his body as the cause. 

Shaun, although blind, has defied the odds. He is a walking, talking miracle, who is now,only 1 year later, learning to walk using a cane. He still has sensation issues in his right arm, so is learning to do everything left handed, and aphasia can still make holding a conversation a little tricky. 

Our life was changed in an instant. We want everyone to be aware of the symptoms of stroke and not just the more common symptoms. It can happen to anyone. Life with our two young children is what keeps Shaun striving to get better, and the brain is amazing at re-wiring itself, but more education needs to be placed on lowering the risk of stroke and the effects it can have on survivors and there support system. 

We are lucky to have wonderful family and friends and now carers and therapists who work with us daily, but if we can save someone else from going through what we have had to endure by sharing our story, then our mission is accomplished.